After the complications earlier in the leg GREAT Britain show their class by
being first to touch down in China

GREAT Britain's crew continued their excellent run in the 2013-14 Clipper Race and were first boat to arrive into Qingdao on Monday.

Their first-place result was not confirmed until Friday, two days before the fleet set sail on race 10 across the North Pacific.

When the results were verified GREAT Britain achieved an impressive elapsed time of five days six hours 26 minutes.

Skipper of GREAT Britain, Simon Talbot was confident in his performance, but also wary of current overall leaders OneDLL who at one stage looked set to challenge for the all-important 12 points.

“I knew we had achieved a competitive elapsed time when we arrived, and I was confident that we either had first or second place,” he said. “I can’t tell you how great it feels to wins this race. It was full of never-ending challenges, but the team worked so hard and really pulled together.

“I’m so proud of the crew, all our hard work has paid off and to win 12 points is fantastic."

Talbot's yacht had been leading race nine – the second on one of the most challenging legs in the whole event – from Singapore when it was halted, due to technical failures across the dozen-strong, One-Design fleet. The boats were force to turn into Hong Kong for repairs to the bottlescrew forestays, made by British sailor and Clipper Race founder Robin Knox-Johnston.

If GREAT Britain were frustrated at having their race cut short they did not show it on the waters when race 9.1 begun just over a week ago.

They were one of the three boats first out of the notoriously tricky Taiwan Strait, along with Mission Performance and Derry~Londonderry~Doire, and managed to get their noses in front in the last stretch.

GREAT Britain won race three and four, and before this first-place result were fourth in the overall standings on 65 point. Above them were One DLL (81), Henry Lloyd (79.9) and Derry~Londonderry~Doire.

Race 9.1 was run on an elapsed-time basis, so the finishing order did not necessarily reflect the fastest times, which was the basis for awarding points.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Robin Knox-Johnston - Great to see the first three &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&amp;q=%23ClipperRace" target="_blank"&gt;#ClipperRace&lt;/a&gt; yachts arrive in &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&amp;q=%23Qingdao" target="_blank"&gt;#Qingdao&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&amp;q=%23China" target="_blank"&gt;#China&lt;/a&gt; this morning. Always a wonderful welcome ceremony here.&lt;/noframe&gt;

“We had a really good race, but it was a very tough race. We have all our fingers crossed that we have done really well with our elapsed time,” said GREAT Britain skipper Talbot on Monday. “As a team we are really pleased especially when you consider how tricky this race has been.”

Both Derry~Londonderry~Doire and Mission Performance skippers were proud of their teams' performances, after they achieved elapsed times of seven days, seven hours, 57 minutes and 59 seconds, and seven days, 13 hours, 14 minutes respectively.

These times could still remain competitive given the changing weather currently being experienced across the fleet. Mission Performance skipper Matt Mitchell said the strong finish had given his crew a real morale booster. “Everyone feels fantastic, we do have a very small team but everyone gave 110 per cent," he said, "and I couldn’t have asked more of them.

“There were times when I was asking them to change the sails and they really didn’t want to. In all fairness to the team it didn’t take too much persuasion. We really feel that we have performed the best we possibly could for what was a very tough race.”

Derry~Londonderry~Doire's crew members were also in high spirits as they joined the other boats in bright sunshine to be greeted by massed bands of drummers, dancers, throngs of well wishers, media and local VIPs in China.

Skipper Sean McCarter said: “To arrive here today in Qingdao is a massive relief. To finish Race 9.1, one of the toughest races in the entire Clipper Race, and to finish it in one piece with the crew in good form is just a massive relief.

“We were lucky to dodge the worst of the weather, but it definitely wasn’t easy. We faced some very tough conditions in the Taiwan Strait, and we were racing very closely with GREAT Britain and Mission Performance.”

The remainder of the fleet has been struggling in lighter airs or strong head winds, although the forecast suggests winds will shift to provide a downwind finish for some.